Tax free childcare government top up

[happybaby2024]

Posting for traffic.

Our childcare bill for DD is £630 per month ( reduced from £980 due to 15 funded hours). We are entitled to the tax free childcare of £500 per quarter but will not not use this full allowance as we will only use £126 a month (20% of £630), £378 a month. This means that £122 a month will be unused.

Is there anything stopping me from overpaying to the nursery and so building up a credit on the nursery account and therefore getting a couple of months free at the end. I've build up some credit already that is just sitting in the online nursery account.

Can't see anything online to say you can't do this.

I can't see why it would be a problem to keep money in your tax free childcare account.
I have seen people recommend topping it up a little each month to cover school holidays when the child is bigger for holiday clubs.

You don't need to overpay the nursery, just top up your account and leave the excess in the TFC account until you need it.

Ah ok, yeh this makes more sense.

Just pay in the max per month to get the full benefit - don't pay the nursery - just build it up like a savings account - that's what I did with my twins - and every quarter paid in £2k to get the max £500 top up per child - so that I built up a nest egg to pay for childcare right through to school

Max out your account, don't overpay the nursery